As the construction
proceeds to completion, more images of the Newport mosque, the
Australian Islamic Centre in Melbourne, designed by Glenn Murcutt in
association with Hakan Elevli of Elevli Plus, are being published.* The NGV’s, the National Gallery of Victoria, recent exhibition at
Federation Square - Glenn Murcutt: Architecture of Faith - has only hastened and broadened the promotion of
these photographs and sketches, turning them into ‘works of art’
with their unique context that seems to anticipate a great work of
architecture. Not many unfinished buildings get such hype prior to
their completion. Is the exhibition premature? Perhaps, but it is
because of this public display that one feels as though one can
comment on the work as presented to date.
Light boxes on the mosque roof
Light box on display at the NGV
While the
photographs cannot disguise the stage they illustrate, the sketches
can. Are the sketches working documents or have they been prepared
for public exhibition and promotional consumption? Being ‘in the
industry,’ one knows how things occur from time to time, how
sketches can be deliberately conjured up to suggest an inspirational
beginning, and a free, clever, ‘creative’ investigative process.
The fact that the sketches are all so very accurate in their finality
seems to imply that they might have been scribbled freehand after the
event to appear otherwise. Working documents are usually a lot more
messy, more uncertain in their appearance, more searching in their
lines and expression: more unresolved. They are tentative rather than
self-assured; they generally take on the appearance of a palimpsest,
a controlled chaos careless of appearances, only concerned with the
depth, clarity and integrity of the resolution.
The Murcutt drawings
– one assumes they are his - look more like self-conscious
architectural ‘sketch-like’ illustrations, purposefully-styled renderings,
than the lines of the thinking mind guiding the meandering hand as it
prods discovery along the edge of the void, on that cliché ‘blank
sheet of paper’ that lies at the heart of the challenge confronting
all designers. Still, the drawings are pretty: see – How poetry
comes to me and The Muse – getting it right in the
sidebar.
Scarborough College, John Andrews
The definitive
working sketch drawing is that by John Andrews. The original
development plan for Scarborough College in Toronto, now the
University of Toronto, Scarborough, was presented to the college on
its completion, to be permanently displayed in the main foyer. This
very large drawing of the whole complex illustrated the thinking, the
searching, and the revelations involved in designing of the college
expressed as a mishmash of meandering lines merging into meaning. It
is a beautiful, coloured palimpsest, a layering of process in line
and form, in plan and section, in broad diagram and in intimate
detail. Charles Rennie Macintosh has done similar ‘thinking’
development drawings of his detailed work using a much more refined
and delicate line and layering technique. The Andrews drawing holds the bold,
rambling, inquistive quality of a John Olsen painting, but it does refer to
things real and tangible: just look around the college that seems to
materialise the early futuristic studies of Antonio Sant’Elia. Few
of these probing qualities are revealed in the very tidy and complete
Murcutt drawings that appear more representational than revelatory.
They hold little doubt, just self-assurance; they know too much, too
precisely - see:
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/on-drawing-personal-note.html
The mosque is not yet complete, but the images made public to date do suggest some sources.
The blurb explains how Murcutt has attempted to interpret the mosque
in a new manner rather than collect the traditional images and
expressions, and shape them in new materials. Rather Murcutt explains
how he has sought out new meanings, forms and expressions for all of
the traditional pieces and parts of the mosque for Australian
Muslims.
Suleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul, Sinân
So it is that he
uses light in colours he claims are symbolic for Islam and does away
with the usual dominant dome. In the same manner the eye-catching
traditional minarets made iconic by Sinân,
have been re-invented as a smaller, less ascendant form apparently
because Murcutt claims that it will never be used for the call to
prayer. All the traditional spaces and functions are in the building
complex, even the body of still water that traditionally symbolises life and purity. The question lingers: can light boxes replace the symbolism of the dome? -
“The dome is, of course, a cosmic symbol in every religious tradition; and symbolically, in Islam the dome represents the vault of heaven in the same way as the garden prefigures Paradise,” wrote James Dickie in his book “Allah and Eternity: Mosques, Madrasas and Tombs.”
On symbols in traditional art see:
http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/public/articles/Symbols-by_Ananda_K_Coomaraswamy.aspx
On the minaret wall, see Robert Frost's MENDING WALL in the sidebar - see CONTEXT, 10 February 2017 below.
“The dome is, of course, a cosmic symbol in every religious tradition; and symbolically, in Islam the dome represents the vault of heaven in the same way as the garden prefigures Paradise,” wrote James Dickie in his book “Allah and Eternity: Mosques, Madrasas and Tombs.”
On symbols in traditional art see:
http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/public/articles/Symbols-by_Ananda_K_Coomaraswamy.aspx
On the minaret wall, see Robert Frost's MENDING WALL in the sidebar - see CONTEXT, 10 February 2017 below.
Suleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul, Sinân
Béton brut, Newport mosque
Chapel at Ronchamp
'Canons' over sacristry, La Tourette
Interior of sacristry (as seen from church)
'Canons' over lower church altars, La Tourette
Interior showing lower church altars, La Tourette
The more one ponders
the ‘art’ publicity for this mosque, the more clearly do other
places and buildings come to mind. The core reference that is
recalled is Le Corbusier’s work. One would not hesitate to look at
Corb’s projects if one was given the task of designing a religious
building because his works represent the most coherently meaningful
spiritual expressions of the twentieth century. Ronchamp comes to
mind as the iconic chapel - spiritual place, space and light admired,
loved, even idolised by many.# A new church under construction at
Burleigh Heads, Queensland, seems to have looked at Corb’s chapel
for guidance. But it is Corb’s work just outside Lyon, the forms,
finishes, spaces and light of his monastery at La Tourette, that one
recalls when browsing the Murcutt images. Here the finishes are raw,
insitu concrete, the béton
brut of the Brutalists, similar to that used in Murcutt’s mosque. Light
is brought into various spaces using the sculptural ‘canons’ as
Corb called them – projecting forms that angle to catch light to
illuminate the lower church chapels, and the sacristy off the main
church. The smaller sacristy canons are greater in number than their
larger, more dominant shafts over the lower altars. The glass in
these skylights is clear, with the colour being introduced by the
painting of the interior surfaces. Murcutt uses more formal, vertical
projecting forms, angular in plan, directed differently to catch the
sunlight in its various phases as it passes over the Australian
landscape. These light boxes, like Corb’s, are fitted with clear
glass and have coloured interiors - bold red, yellow, green and blue,
colours that apparently have symbolic meaning in Islam. This is
difficult to confirm, but a few older mosques do have such coloured
glass lighting their interiors. The primal reference for one not
versed in matters Islamic is that the idea of the colours has been
taken from the stained glass windows of the Christian cathedrals.
Slots lighting the La Tourette church interior
Traditional Islamic colours
Nasīr
al-Mulk Mosque, Shiraz, Iran
Gothic cathedral stained glass
La Tourette sacristy ceiling seen from church
Slots of light angle
into Corb’s La Tourette monastery church along its walls using the
same technique of colouring the splayed reveals. The colours are red,
green and yellow. The large canon colours are, surprisingly, red,
white and black – see:
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/la-tourette.html
These are set in a blue ceiling with yellow surrounding walls. All
concrete finishes are left as raw, off-form concrete surfaces.
Externally the Corb canons are similarly raw concrete. Murcutt’s
are a sophisticated bronze-coloured metal, and appear to be
ventilated.
Murcutt's minaret
The bell tower of La
Tourette is a concrete box with a bell in it, (rung by a rope hanging
in a conduit leading to an internal recess in the end wall of the
church: see -
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/corbusier-renaissance-man.html
). The box form is supported high on a large triangular wall
projection, very much in the same way Murcutt has shaped his minaret,
a triangular, in situ concrete blade wall with the elegant Islamic
golden crescent at the top.
Maison de la
Culture, Firminy
One is constantly
reminded of Corb’s work with the concrete and the colours that he
has used frequently in his projects over the years.
Unité
d’Habitation, Marseille
Shelving, La Tourette
Hedi Weber Museum,
Zurich
Palace of Justice,
Chandigarh
The geometry of Murcutt's roof
Murcutt explains
that he has been inspired by Islamic geometry in the ceiling design.
One hesitates, finding it difficult to try to understand this
reference, as the work that first comes to mind is Leonard French’s
beautiful ceiling in the National Gallery of Victoria.
Leonard French's NGV glass ceiling
Islamic geometry is
stunning and beautifully complex in its rigorous resolution, with
simple beginnings developing into marvellously intricate and complex
diagrams: see - Keith Critchlow’s Islamic Patterns: An
Analytical and Cosmological Approach
https://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Patterns-Analytical-Cosmological-Approach/dp/0892818034
The Murcutt design seems too staccato, too scattered, too
fragmented, too uneasy to reference the cohesive and calmly flowing
surfaces that Islamic patterns generate. Murcutt’s somewhat
awkward, stark arrangement of triangles and colours seems to lack the
wholeness and inner inter-relationship that traditional patterns hold
in their astonishing wonder; their completeness; their rich, fluid
integrity and subtlety of hues. The ceiling at present looks more
like a detail of the Leonard French glass ceiling work reproduced in
part at a larger scale.
Detail of the NGV ceiling
Murcutt's mosque ceiling
Monastery, La Tourette
Elevations of the
Murcutt Australian Islamic Centre are not promoted with much clarity,
but one is tempted to see parts of La Tourette here too – thin,
long horizontal slots and a multiplicity of vertical blades.
Does powerful work
linger in one’s mind as feeling when designing, to become a
supporting expression for another context? It is indeed extremely
difficult to grasp matters meaningfully spiritual in forms and
spaces. One hears how composers find themselves using other memorable
parts and pieces of music in their own works, subconsciously. Can
this happen in architecture too?
Chapel interior, Ronchamp
Ronchamp chapel towers each catch a different light
One issue lingers
with some regret in this mosque. Apparently in a video on the project
Murcutt can be heard justifying the increase in costs – something
reportedly like nearly double the original eight million dollar
budget – with the argument that it will all be worth it at the end
because the mosque will be a great piece of architecture. Did he tell
the NGV this too? It is not a very good promotion for architects and
their reputations as it only reinforces the ‘Sydney Opera House’
cliché that an architect will cost you money for his/her own
aggrandisement and indulgence, and give you something ‘different’
to suit his/her bespoke ‘genius’ vision: see - Roger Scruton
quote in NOTES at end of
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2017/01/herzog-de-meuron-architecture-with-no.html
As for the
references that one recalls when viewing the photographs and drawings
of this project, the worry is that these are predominantly Christian
expressions. One does not think of the great mosques of the world.
Perhaps this experience might go towards the idea of generating a
greater harmony between religions? If the Murcutt mosque can do this,
perhaps it will indeed be worthwhile.
The photographer?
The architect and the light boxes:
where is his associate?*
One concern is that
the architect seems only too happy to be repeatedly photographed with
his work, almost as the prototypical ‘heroic’ genius looking for
the due admiration and praise. This again is not a very good look,
even if he did once win the Pritzker Prize. The fact that someone -
Murcutt? - has illustrated an interior sketch with a figure
apparently using a camera to photograph the ‘clever’ ceiling only
suggests an exhibitionist role for grand display, rather than a
spiritual one for intimate, inspirational contemplation offering a quiet, enriching context for worship. It is a quality that the chapel
at Ronchamp captures with a gentle, genuine, solemn depth and
emotional respect: see -
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/ronchamp-windsock-of-spirit.html
It will be
interesting to see the Murcutt mosque project finished. One hopes
that it will be open for all to visit. There is nothing worse than
being told that, as an ‘infidel’ from the west, one is not
allowed to go into a mosque, no matter how much love and respect one
might hold for these beautiful places and people; or that one has to
go to the back door one kilometre away and pay to go into a temple
precinct, (Bangkok), while local believers can stroll in past the
armed guards keeping nosy tourists with their cameras at bay.
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Inlaid marble and stone floral decoration
On beautiful
mosques: see -
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/the-most-beautiful-building-in-world.html
and
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/abu-dhabi-hotel-mosque-heritage-centre.html
The Abu Dhabi mosque is simply stunning in its wonder; its
magnificence. Murcutt’s mosque is extremely restrained when
compared with this place of worship. Is this a result of his
Modernism that knows not what to do with decoration? - see:
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2017/01/herzog-de-meuron-architecture-with-no.html
Has the glory of Islam been squeezed by the restraints of
Christianity – Catholicism and Protestantism? Have the prejudices
of Modernism reshaped the magic of light and colour into forms
acceptable to this International architect’s eye, his particular
preferences rather than encourage an attempt to embody the essential
meaning of traditional religious symbols? - see note in sidebar on
Cathedrals and Symbolism. One would not like to think that the
local ‘Aussie’ culture has encouraged things to be ‘watered’
down.
Australian Islamic Centre, Newport
Let’ see it
finished before we jump to conclusions. The mosque was due to be
completed 'late in 2016.' It is now 28 January 2017: any day soon?
For more on mosques
in Australia, see:
http://www.sbs.com.au/topics/life/culture/article/2016/09/23/when-islamic-architecture-meets-australian-design
#
For the power and
influence of Corb’s Ronchamp chapel, see the unusual truck rest
area inspired by this place of worship:
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/ronchamp-rest-areas-and-meaning.html
MORE IMAGES
MORE IMAGES
'Architectural' view of the light boxes
There seem to be no limits to getting the 'architectural' shot
see: http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/seeing-what-we-believe-idyllic-visions.html for more on photographs and architecture
Roof by night
Beautiful graphics in the Newport mosque
Traditional mosques
Nasīr
al-Mulk Mosque, Shiraz, Iran
Auburn Gallipoli Mosque dome interior
for the astonishing array of dome interiors
Islamic patterns
Cleaning a glass roof that has a defined, precise geometry similar to the beginnings of Islamic patterning
(Building cleaners, Dresden, Germany)
Martin Lings on Islamic art:
'One cannot marvel enough.'
Le Corbusier
forms, light & colours
Refectory, La Tourette
La Tourette, western elevation
The corridor leading to the church, La Tourette
Main church space, La Tourette
Courtyard, La Tourette
Lower church chapels, La Tourette
Refectory window, La Tourette
Sacristry, La Tourette
Monk's cell, La Tourette
Palace of Justice,
Chandigarh
'Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of
masses brought together in light.'
Le Corbusier
*
NOTE ON ELEVLI PLUS
This project was
designed by Glenn Murcutt in association with the Melbourne architectural
firm, Elevli Plus, but very little is said about this firm in the
published promotional material on this new Australian Islamic Centre at
Newport which is included in the Elevli Plus list of projects. One is
constantly presented with the words ‘Murcutt’s Mosque’ as in
the title of this piece, and Murcutt is frequently
photographed by himself with his ‘masterpiece.’ Elevli Plus is
treated like a silent partner. Elevli Plus should be acknowledged for
its role in this project.
For information on
this firm see: http://www.elevliplus.com.au/about/
ABOUT US
Elevli Plus is a growing international
architecture practice focused on the creation and delivery of
inspiring and engaging architecture and interior art forms. The
design studio and leading international design team headquartered in
Melbourne with offices in Sydney, Istanbul and Nairobi offer an array
of minimalist and distinctive modern architecture and interior design
services. This unique and talented team, with vast experience, is
able to bring innovation and creativity to each project with the
innate ability to tackle complex and multifaceted design briefs and
constructs.
THE DESIGN STUDIO AND INTERNATIONAL TEAM
IS SUPPORTED BY ARCHITECTS, INTERIOR DESIGNERS, TECHNICAL, MARKETING
AND ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF HEADQUARTERED IN THE MELBOURNE
OFFICE.
HAKAN ELEVLI
HAKAN ELEVLI
PRINCIPAL
Hakan has previously been a partner with
the international firm, Peddle Thorp Architects before becoming the
Principal of Elevli Plus. During this time, he has fine-tuned his
creative and technical skills working on a broad range of projects.
These include prestigious residential commissions, high-rise towers,
commercial developments, community and educational facilities,
sporting facilities and resorts. in addition to these Australian
projects, Hakan has significant international experience with a range
of diverse projects located in New Zealand, China, Vietnam and
Turkey. Hakan also collaborates with acclaimed architect Glenn
Murcutt to produce visionary designs.
Newport Mosque and Community
Centre, Glenn Mercutt Collaboration, Newport, Victoria
As a collaborative design
with Glenn Murcutt, this Turkish Islamic structure combines all of
the necessary functional requirements of a building of this type with
unique Australian characteristics. The meeting of two cultures has
been successfully achieved through the many creative and intricate
design elements present throughout the structure, delivering a truly
unique architectural outcome.
COMMENT
The blurb in the Elevli Plus site is interesting. It defines the Islamic Centre as 'Turkish' and, like the NGV, it declares the project to be a success even before it has been completed.
COMMENT
The blurb in the Elevli Plus site is interesting. It defines the Islamic Centre as 'Turkish' and, like the NGV, it declares the project to be a success even before it has been completed.
ARTICLES
For more on the Murcutt/Elevli
Australian Islamic Centre, see the following articles:
There is another matter that arises from
the Sydney Morning Herald text -
http://www.smh.com.au/national/glenn-murcutt-on-mosque-without-minarets-and-architecture-designed-to-transform-20161201-gt2dah.html
:
Replacing the minaret is a dramatic wall
of in situ concrete, soaring towards the street and entry to a height
of 10 metres while offering up a gold crescent at its pinnacle.
Replacing the dome is a flat roof, punctuated by a series of 96
triangular lanterns or skylights – each painted in one of four
colours associated with Islam and angled to track the sun, imbuing
the space with different colours throughout the day and seasons.
Replacing the closed garden and mosque is an open, transparent space
allowing those praying to see out and those outside to see in –
designed in line with the community's desire for those of all faiths
to feel welcome, to wander in and spend time in the mosque, to learn
of Islam and Muslim Australia.
The mosque, the prayer space itself, is
apparently to be open to the street for all to see in and out.
"I've tried to think through many
of the issues that I, as an Australian, find threatening in the form
of architecture that's sometimes built in the name of Islam in this
country. Having experienced life in the Arab world as a non-Muslim, I
recognised in myself the things that I found very difficult to come
to terms with. And I felt other Australians would feel the same and
that I would pursue ideals that would modify, without losing
completely, the idea of what various elements in the Islamic
tradition mean."
Gone are the minarets and domes commonly
associated with mosques, along with the impenetrable facade and
closed off courtyard, as Murcutt and Elevli moved to address symbols
potentially representing negative associations for non-Muslims. "It
was important we create an architecture to which both Islamic and
Australian communities would respond positively."
The ambition appears to be to demystify
the mosque, to open it up to unfettered public scrutiny.
This begs some serious questions:
Can spiritual space be demystified and
still maintain its uniquely sacred quality?
Can sacred space be a part of the
street, the everyday, available to every passerby?
Can prayer be a public matter that can
engage the street?
Is prayer a 'shop window' spectacle to educate the public?
Is prayer a 'shop window' spectacle to educate the public?
Would the chapel at Ronchamp be the same
with a full glass wall to allow the outsiders to be
involved/informed?
What might a fully glazed western wall
on a cathedral do for its presence and the worshippers?
One only has to consider how the high
glazed walls of the Abedian School of Architecture Forum Space –
the public lecture room of the school at Bond University on the Gold
Coast in southeast Queensland – create nuisance distractions and
reflections for those trying to concentrate on the presentation: see
-
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/the-nordic-architecture-symposium-aalto.html
Passersby might be informed about the events occurring inside, but
the attendees do not need to see these folk or be aware of their
comings and goings, their daily intrigues, or their quirky habits that are all on full, 'picture-window' display.
They are there to listen to the presentation and look at the images
accompanying it, nothing more. One can only think how much more
critical it might be for prayer, for meditation to be isolated from everyday public spaces and events, the mutual supervision and distractions that are involved.
As for the overhead lighting that the
designers of the mosque have spent so much effort developing, one has
to be concerned about the light flooding in through the open glass
wall open to the street. The glass walls at the Abedian School Forum
Space offer a surplus of light that can become just too much glare
for images to be seen clearly, or for ordinary physical comfort. What might
the impact of a glazed wall be on the ceiling lighting; on the
comfort those praying? One can recall how dark and isolated Corb's chapel and church spaces are; how black the interior of Chartres cathedral can be - see:
The intent of the design appears to be
based on the idea that public supervision of things differently
sacred and personal will only improve matters for the Muslims in
Australia; as if exhibitionism will solve the problem of mystery
rather than tolerance and understanding. One wonders how many cameras
might be allowed to photograph the building during prayer? How will disinterested observers be managed? There is something strangely naive in this
proposition that needs to be looked at more closely once the building is
completed: it has something to do with respect and
discernment, the lack of it. Will the complex become a permanent NGV exhibition?
Perhaps one needs to ponder the words on the back of Amanda Curtin's novel, Elemental (UWA Publishing, 2013):
It has taken a lifetime for me to see that the more afraid people are of the darkness, the further into it they will flee.
10 February 2017
CONTEXT
The address of the Australian Islamic
Centre is: 23/31 Blenheim Rd, Newport VIC 3015. Looking at Google
Maps and Google Earth, one is able to see the context that is always
cleverly cut out of the formal renderings and photographs of the
project that present the building alone, as an ‘art’ object
precisely framed to exclude any suggestion of surrounding place, be
this developed or undeveloped - suburban, industrial, recreational,
or otherwise. So what is the context? How does the new,
much-discussed Centre fit into its particular site? After all, it was
Murcutt who spoke about ‘touching the ground lightly,’ suggesting
an aboriginal sensitivity to place, context and landscape in his
work.
The map indicates that the Centre is
positioned near: Altona Lakes Public Golf Course; Altona Magic Soccer
Club; Altona Badmington Centre; Altona Miniature Railway; the Paisley
Drain; Mobil Refinery Altona; Mobil Terminal Altona; with Bunnings
Altona and Altona North Officeworks just up the road; the
Williamstown Soccer Club on Kororoit Creek nearby; and the suburban
Newport Gardens development wrapped around its local Primary School
directly opposite.
The note on Frost’s Mending Wall
in the text is asking just what the context might be: What I was
walling in or walling out. The neighbouring sites contiguous with
the Centre, that are identified on the map, are the Altona Lakes
Public Golf Course and the Altona Miniature Railway. It is the
Miniature Railway amusement centre that is divided from the mosque
precinct by the minaret wall. This probably explains why no context
has been illustrated on the far side of this wall other than a
suggestion of idyllic open fields and distant mountains.
The mosque seems to sit on the edge, in
between a variety of very different, contrasting development
precincts, at their collision point, almost in a no man’s land. It
is a location that sadly makes it appear likewise in the Australian
cultural milieu. One has come to know mosques in the Muslim world as
being an integral part of a place, beautifully entwined in the rich,
everyday fabric of the city: seamlessly with a special, but ordinary
wonder. It is a true shame that we do not appear to be comfortable
with a mosque being similarly located in our Australian cities.
The photograph published with Roger Walker's comment (see below) carefully frames out the neighbour;
the Altona Miniature Railway Amusement Centre
POSTED COMMENT
In the presence of a masterpiece
Posted by Roger on November 29, 2016 ·
Leave a comment
Every once in a while as I walk through
a building that I have never visited before, I am overwhelmed by the
feeling that I am in the presence of a masterpiece.
This is what I sensed last weekend
during a visit that was part of an architectural tour of Melbourne.
Adding to the sense of wonder was the knowledge that my colleagues
and I were among the first to experience a building that, when
complete, is bound to grace the cover of every architectural magazine
in the world.
The subject of my admiration is the
largest work by Australia’s only Pritzker prizewinning architect
Glenn Murcutt – a contemporary mosque in Newport, a 20 minute train
ride from central Melbourne.
http://www.rogerwalker.co.nz/rog-on-beauty/
Dare one question the proposition that
‘success’ is being published on ‘the cover of every
architectural magazine in the world’? Is this the message of the
phantom photographer? One might have hoped that achievement and
recognition would have more to do with the everyday experience of the building
as sacred space, as a meaningfully enriching place, rather than with
the scope of the distribution of spectacular pictorial presentations.
Let’s hope that the Centre does not become just a ‘display’
mosque.
NOTE: For another concealed context, see
-
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/drew-heath-bespoke-details-practise.html
Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House
11 February 2017
ORIGINS
As more images of the nearly-completed
Australian Islamic Centre are published, it becomes clear that the
work of Le Corbusier is not the only reference that comes to the eye.
One is now seeing similarities with the work of Mies van der Rohe; in
particular the Farnsworth House. What is of interest here is that the
early work of Glenn Murcutt, (that of Hakan Elevli is less well
known), was very much styled on the Mies ethic – open steel and
glass houses. Some see his later colloquial ‘Aussie’ style that
has captured the imagination of the world – oddly even architects
in the Shetland Islands yearn to do similar work, even it that
climate! - as basically being the same Miesian philosophy clad in
corrugated iron. If one looks closely at this work, it, like that of
Mies, is laboured in every precise detail. It is starkly different to
the Australian ‘shed’ architecture that it seems to try to refer
to. The bush shed has the straightforward, casual ‘she’ll be
right, mate!’ attitude to its assembly, making and detailing, where
things improvised and ad hoc are adapted with a naive and open
honesty, and add to the particular feel of place that has been
popularised as the ‘Australian’ character.
c.f. also Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye
13 February 2017
A few images of the context from Google Earth Street View:
AIC adjacent to Williamstown in Melbourne's west
AIC on left
AIC on right
Suburban housing opposite AIC site
Mobil Refinery Altona on left, on other side of railway line
View along Blenheim Road - AIC on left
End of Blenheim Road at railway line
Altona Miniature Railway Amusement Centre
AIC on left
The images change one's perceptions of the Newport mosque. It becomes a place with less of an 'arty' urban image; more of a building in a bushland setting. One is reminded of the early mosques in country Australia like the one at Maree. This is a small building; but the shearing shed is a complex with a similar scale to that of the AIC in open countryside. The historic shed at Menindee comes to mind - a large building in open countryside; and a development with an 'Australian' character - 'leaves of iron' - popularised by Murcutt.
Australia's first mosque at Maree, SA, built 1861
There appears to
be an enigma here. Instead of the traditional mosque boldly reaching
tall into the glory of the cosmos with minarets and domes, while
declaring its presence rhythmically throughout the day, here the
broad, high brilliance of the Australian sky and the brash, bland
emptiness of the Australian landscape, both randomly modified by the
usual tawdry, ad hoc developments, dominate modern mosque buildings.
The mythologised Murcutt approach of 'caring for particular place'
has not seen any familiar local references or known religious
symbolism adapted or adopted for this project. Rather Murcutt and Elevli seem to have
chosen to manipulate modern Meisian/Corbusian materials and forms in
an attempt to create new images and symbols for a subdued presence of
sacred place, the silent mosque in modern Australia.
Both the
forgetting of the traditional forms related to indigenous landscape,
and the avoidance of traditional symbols, appear to have left a quiet tension
in this project - a naive, native void; a certain contrived, showy
hollowness. Both have something naturally necessary about them: the
Australian bush character of the shed, and the cosmic essence of
the symbol; both are more than mere inventions of interest and
difference to be modified or ignored at one's whim. There is a core quality in these aspects of feeling and form, an
enriching coherence that gets forgotten at one's risk - the risk of
alienation: where sophisticated, international concepts and forms are
located in the bush, aligning with, and reinforcing the struggle to
declare meaning as bespoke, 'creative' inventions that catch the eye
uniquely.
When architecture
does engage both of these aspects of the past with a modest, humble
commitment, it can give an ego-free magnificence, all as seen in
things traditional, an experience beautifully expressed by Martin
Lings as being a state in which 'one cannot marvel enough.'
How might one describe the AIC experience?
20 February 2017
see: THE AIM OF ART in the sidebar.
24 February 2017
For more on the symbolism of the mosque, see: https://www.slideshare.net/jyotiahlawat1654/symbolism-in-islamic-architecture
How might one describe the AIC experience?
20 February 2017
see: THE AIM OF ART in the sidebar.
24 February 2017
For more on the symbolism of the mosque, see: https://www.slideshare.net/jyotiahlawat1654/symbolism-in-islamic-architecture
17 March 2017
On the street-facing glass wall that has been deliberately incorporated to make the events in the prayer hall more 'transparent' to outsiders, one wonders if Murcutt has realised the physicality and direction of prayer. Is there a danger of there being some surprising misinterpretations?
22 September 2017
30 April 2021
The Meeting House, University of Sussex
Sir Basil Spence
Meeting House, University of Sussex, City of Brighton and Hove,
England.
Built in 1966 by Sir Basil Spence as a non-denominational
religious meeting place and chaplaincy for the University.
